Winners
by Julia451
Summary: One-shot. What did Mai, Zuko, Ty Lee, and Azula do the evening and next morning after crashing Chan's party in "The Beach"? Maiko Mai/Zuko rated T for implications.


Ty Lee and Azula said nothing when Mai and Zuko didn't follow them home from Chan's. The stretch of beach below the cliffs of the Fire Lord's crumbling old summer house looked much more beautiful than it had a few hours ago. The couple lay down together in the sand next to the smoldering ashes of Zuko's fire, looking up at the stars.

"They're so different from the constellations in the Earth Kingdom," Mai observed.

"I never thought I'd see them again," Zuko whispered.

Mai held him closer to her. "It's over now," she reminded him.

"How long will it last?" Zuko asked with his eyes closed. "I can't go on like this forever, doubting everything I think and everything I do. What if it turns out everything I've done is wrong? What if I..."

"_This_ is right," she said firmly, rising on her elbow, cupping his chin in her hand, tilting his face up to her, and kissing him.

He suddenly pushed her away. "I don't deserve this," he sighed.

"That's for me to decide," she replied.

He pushed her hand away again. "You... you deserve better..."

"Again, for me to decide." He stopped fighting her.

He pulled himself free after awhile and held her face in his hands as he looked directly into her eyes. "I betrayed my uncle. I let my sister kill the Avatar. I hurt so many people. I don't even know if I want the throne or my father to accept me anymore. If I were banished again, tomorrow, I don't think I'd care except for one thing... I haven't earned anything I wanted... except this."

"_We_ have earned this," she clarified. "By all the years we waited and never gave up."

"I know," he agreed. "I'm ashamed of so many things, but I'm not ashamed of loving you or waiting for you. That's the only thing about me I know isn't evil."

"Then don't fight it," she said frantically. "Don't let Azula and your father take this from us. Just love me!"

She threw herself against him again. He rolled over on top of her, then slowly stopped and looked down at her. He felt like they were about to battle some great enemy together, and that victory was proving that all the pain they'd felt or caused over the years hadn't destroyed their ability to feel this. Love wasn't a prize but a weapon – the means of fighting the darkness that threatened to crush them. It could make him doubt everything about himself, but not this – destroy her capacity to feel anything, but not this. Every part of his soul had been twisted and broken beyond recognition... except this. She wouldn't let him lose it to his guilt and anger; she wouldn't let him surrender, and she wouldn't either. It was with this thought that he briefly closed his eyes. When he opened them again, she saw flames burning in them.

Afterwards, they still didn't understand the battle they had fought, but they knew without a doubt they had won.

* * *

Ty Lee waited until Lo and Li had left her and Azula alone with their breakfast before observing, "Mai never came back to her room last night" with a tone and a playful smirk she knew she could never get away with anywhere but here on Ember Island. Whatever was in the air of this place that was still affecting Azula as much as it had done at the party last night, Ty Lee intended to take full advantage of it while she had the chance.

Sure enough, instead of giving her the terrifying glare Ty Lee would have expected anywhere else, the princess shrugged in fake nonchalance and suggested, "They probably had such a huge fight, she was too angry to come home."

"Have you seen Zuko this morning?" Ty Lee asked knowingly.

"No, but my opinion has always been, the less I have to see of Zuko, the better," Azula answered with another shrug before taking a sip of her tea. Ty Lee could see that she was already confidently gloating over her (so she thought) inevitable victory in the debate they'd begun last night.

It was then that the door behind them opened. Mai glanced briefly at her friends as she strolled in, yawning and stretching and shifting her unbound hair back over her shoulder. She didn't frown, smile, shake her head, clear her throat, look the least bit embarrassed or surprised, or say a single word, but her eyes seemed to be humming with silent, repressed joy and laughter before she had walked across the room and out the other door towards the bathhouse.

Azula didn't take her eyes off the closed door as she recalled what she and Ty Lee had discussed last night.

"_How would we know which of us wins?"_

"_Trust me – you can __**always**__ tell."_

Now that she was looking for it, Azula couldn't deny that Ty Lee's seemingly outrageous statement was apparently true – you _can_ always tell.

Both girls were still staring in the same direction Mai had left them gazing in when Ty Lee extended her hand across the table towards Azula and cleared her throat rather loudly. The princess took five gold pieces out of her pocket and handed them to her.

"I told you they'd do it," said Ty Lee, fully savoring the rare victory.

"Oh, shut up," Azula snapped.


End file.
